Who knew? More here

I just heard about elgg when I was thinking of adding some social networking features to a website I maintain. Fortunately, it has recently released version 1.0. The version without the bugs right? The first issue I came to was that my local versions of MySQL and PHP were out of date so I downloaded the latest versions and installed them onto the machine.
Great, now it was allowing me to perform the install and I came to the first settings page. Filled in the appropriate values and hit return. Then the message “The requested URL /elgg/action/systemsettings/install was not found on this server.” came up. WTF?
Back searching on the elgg google group and the the elgg troubleshooting page. Tried changing the .htaccess page and the apache httpd.conf file. Nothing changed. Tried everything suggested and nothing has changed. Now I’m just bored and going to leave elgg until version 1.1.

It seems that in the latest version of Siebel Tools, some much needed improvements for developers have been implemented and let’s face, have been long overdue. The interface uses a tabbed UI where workflows, scripts and applets can be kept in context and accessed in the same way as Firefox works. One of the most irritating aspects of developing workflows in earlier versions was that the context of the workflow was lost each time you wanted to reference a script or fields on an integration object. That meant querying again for the workflow and bringing it back. Of course, if another reference lookup was required context again was lost. Think of it like using one instance of Internet Explorer and then using Firefox. it’s a vastly improved interface in my opinion.
The problem of workflow simulation working on a haphazard basis has also been improved. I think that in three weeks, I have only encountered the “Workflow Finished” message twice.
Referencing scripts was a bit better but it meant using the Windows menu item each time. Scripting has also been improved with the addition of auto-complete. For example, using ActivateField now prompts with a list of fields from the BusComp. This reduces lookups and spelling errors.
The only question is why did it take them so long to implement those changes that provide so much productivity gains for devleopers. Could it be that it is the first full release done under Oracle?

The Dubliners – In The Rare Old Times

Just added the plugin for WordPress called Wordbook that posts blog entries into your facebook profile. Now I own the master data!

Bertie Ahern is resigning. The end of an era but in reality he stayed on too long. He should have gone before the last election and left on a high note. Now, his image and the memory of his time in office is not as shiny as it would have been.

Many news sources are reporting that stocks are slumping for a second day on the back of the Shanghai index losing 8.8% of its value on Tuesday. However, looking at the web page of the Shanghai stock exchange, the index seems to be up by almost 4% on Wedesday. Is there a negative news bias on economic issues this week?

Update – According to the FT, bloggers seem to think that China was not the cause of the mass sell-off.

Trader Mike seconds that, and runs through the charts. “The selling was broad-based today [Tuesday] — 89% of Nasdaq stocks were down and 84% of NYSE stocks declined….I’ve said before that this move higher felt like a game of musical chairs and today the music seems to have stopped for real. There’s a whole lot of technical damage in the indices. All the indices crashed through their 50-day moving averages today.”

From Creating Passionate Users

It’s been said that the secret to a good marriage is… don’t change. In other words, be the person you were when you were merely dating. Don’t stop paying attention. Don’t stop being kind. Don’t gain 50 pounds. Don’t stop flirting. Stay passionate, stay sexy, stay caring. Answer their calls. Unfortunately, too many companies are all candle-lit dinners, fine wine, and “let’s talk about you” until the deal is sealed. Once they have you (i.e. you became a paying customer), you realize you got a bait-and-switch relationship.

From the New York Times

Kivetz also interviewed 69 students from Columbia University who had returned one week previously from winter break and found that as a group they were split in roughly equal numbers between regret and contentment for having worked or partied. But when Kivetz talked to alumni who graduated 40 years earlier, the picture was much more lopsided: those who hadn’t partied were bitter with regret, while those who had were now thrilled with their choice. “In the long run,” Kivetz says, “we inevitably regret being virtuous and wish we’d been bigger hedonists.”

Here is Sweden it is being reported that Henrik Larsson will be unveiled as a Manchester United player today. Haven’t seen anything being reported outside Sweden about it so far.